She just doesn't like photography!!!

This is no joke. I need advice...

You see, Missus Skygod simply has no idea about the utter joy that is photography.
She's a tiny Japanese lady, and I'd love to do a proper photo shoot with her, but she just thinks my dSLR is a "big boy's toy".

I need hints and tips to help her see how my time at the PC, and out developing technique is not a waste of a life.

She "contributed" to my new 50mm 1.4 this Christmas, so I thought I'd cracked it...but now, 7 days later, I'm hearing, "are you on POTN again?!?!?".

What can I do...?

skygod44 wrote in post #6981388
This is no joke. I need advice...

You see, Missus Skygod simply has no idea about the utter joy that is photography.
She's a tiny Japanese lady, and I'd love to do a proper photo shoot with her, but she just thinks my dSLR is a "big boy's toy".

I need hints and tips to help her see how my time at the PC, and out developing technique is not a waste of a life.

She "contributed" to my new 50mm 1.4 this Christmas, so I thought I'd cracked it...but now, 7 days later, I'm hearing, "are you on POTN again?!?!?".

What can I do...?

Print and frame your best landscapes and give them to her as a pressie

Would you rather I was...
... in a bar?
... looking at porn?
... rubbing your feet?

It took me a long time to persuade my mum to use the internet. She just couldn't see what the point was, had no enthusiasm and when I sat her down she found using a mouse and clicking to be difficult.

What cracked it in the end was finding something she was really interested in and showing her that she could access it. She was heavily into Lord of the Rings at the time and once I showed her a few sites she was hooked!

It's possible you just aren't showing her the right photographs to unlock that part of her brain. What types of photos do you think she'd like to look at? Babies? Does she have a hobby?

Of course it's entirely possible she'll just never see the point of photography, in the same way I can't see the point in cricket

skygod44 wrote in post #6981388
This is no joke. I need advice...

You see, Missus Skygod simply has no idea about the utter joy that is photography.
She's a tiny Japanese lady, and I'd love to do a proper photo shoot with her, but she just thinks my dSLR is a "big boy's toy".

I need hints and tips to help her see how my time at the PC, and out developing technique is not a waste of a life.

She "contributed" to my new 50mm 1.4 this Christmas, so I thought I'd cracked it...but now, 7 days later, I'm hearing, "are you on POTN again?!?!?".

What can I do...?

Oh, I don't know.......there may be some method to her supposed madness....

She's correct....it is a "big boy's toy (and girl's too)"

She did contribute to your delinquency with the 50.

Soooooooo....I figure she's just trying to get you away from all the bad influences on POTN trying to convince you to buy new gear!

Instead.....Praise her for the pics she took in Sydney (visited your blog), drop your 30D on her to take back to Sydney and buy yourself a new 5D MKII!!!!!

Maybe you're spending too much time on POTN?

^There's no such thing.

its hard to get people into the same things you are. it may be a lost cause, if you're too pushy it will just draw her away even more.

Sell a photo. Give her half the money. Tell her, "This is from my toy."

Get published in a local newspaper.

Enter a contest and win.

Sounds to me like she wants you to spend some time with her, without the camera, and computer...women are such jealous creatures....
Jim

cryforashadow wrote in post #6982081
Maybe you're spending too much time on POTN?

powerslave wrote in post #6982215
^There's no such thing.

Oh, yes there is. When you spend so much time on POTN that you have no time left to shoot, you're spending too much time here.

As of me posting this comment, you only have 205 posts on POTN, so you're not spending too much time on here, unless you live on here and dont post anything?

What I did was get my wife into photography along with me. We would go out shooting, and I would let her use the camera till it got to the point that she got her own 30D body so we'd have to stop arguing over who got to take each shot.

Now she's into it just as much as I am. Not the Forums, but she understands what I'm doing.

You could explain it this way as I did. I can spend serious money on school where I go pay to learn all this knowledge, or sit here for a few hours per night (just like school would be) and learn it for free.

Just make sure you're improving and can show her how much better your pictures are becoming. That was also a deal breaker for me. When the first few pictures I printed for her got taken down because she said they didnt even compare to what we were taking now.

Then she had a few of her pictures chosen for magazines and a calendar and now she's in heaven!

Good Luck - Oh, make her your subject for a few photo shoots, then she gets to relish in your hobby!

(Mostly) you guys are great!

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

I did try to take some shots of Missus Skygod with my new nifty-fifty, and she was amazed at the smoothness of the bokeh.

But my wife is one of those people who is a natural genius at some things (languages is her main forte) but utterly crap at other things (eg reading a map and having any idea whatsoever how the darn thing works!!!) If she "can" do something, she loves it. When it takes effort, patience and a new skill, she can get very frustrated.

Being artistic and creative is something she needs to work at, so I think perhaps some of the issue is that I take pics, draw, paint, sculpt etc, with relative ease, while she can't....thus, "Grrrrrrrrr!!!!" at photography.

So....I think I'll keep at it, and try as many have said, to take it gently and try to encourage her to "try taking pictures", not just with her P&S, but with my 30D occasionally.

Thanks again, and thanks to Sunbeast for visiting my blog. It's just where I throw pictures for my family in the UK, but my wife's pictures of Sydney we're all (quickly but effectively) edited by me and she loved the results, so I'm guessing that's a way to get her more interested in why I'm on POTN learning.....

Tell her its in her blood!

http://en.wikipedia.or​g …s&until=Namikaw​a%2C+Banri

EveryMilesAMemory wrote in post #6985035
As of me posting this comment, you only have 205 posts on POTN, so you're not spending too much time on here, unless you live on here and dont post anything?

Did you already notice that 205 posts have been done in only 5 weeks?